Director Spike Lee wove the 9/11 events into the plot of a 2002 film he had already planned for this urban drama starring Edward Norton and Philip Seymour Hoffman. It grossed $13 million, putting it right in the middle among Lee's many low-budget productions.

Director Spike Lee wove the 9/11 events into the plot of a 2002 film he had already planned for this urban drama starring Edward Norton and Philip Seymour Hoffman. It grossed $13 million, putting it right in the middle among Lee's many low-budget productions. (David Lee / Touchstone Pictures)

Hollywood has struggled to make cinema sense of the human tragedy of 9/11 and its victims. While the industry has made critically acclaimed movies from the raw material, its post-9/11 pictures have mostly failed at the box office.